


Soldier

by inkstrain (orphan_account)



Category: the GazettE
Genre: Alternate Universe - Post-Apocalypse, Alternate Universe - Supernatural, Angst, Genetically Enhanced Humans, Human Experimentation, M/M, Psychological, Romance, Smut, Suspense
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-18
Updated: 2016-09-18
Packaged: 2018-08-15 18:15:02
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,885
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8067712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/inkstrain
Summary: Codename: Uruha Service #: TGZ-977-09Status: MIA (Missing In Action) Remarks: For storage if found.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Hiatus? What hiatus?

The sky was clear for a change, devoid of the usual fire-made clouds that caused the air to become too thick for breathing. It still wasn't the blue that he was used to, the one of his youth, but the gray was no longer as dark and already fading: pallid in contrast to the murkiness everyone had become so used to, the heavens finally dissolving into something that was _almost_ the shade of sun-soaked sea. Did this mean that the last of the lifeless bodies the Imperial Palace had been trying to dispose of were all gone now, the result a pile of ashes that the farmers could use to give life back to the soil? Yuu hoped so. Those fires had raged on endlessly, making nighttime seem like day, and the wind had smelled of nothing but melting muscle and charring bones for weeks on end. But was it over now and for good? Were they going to smell salt and seaweed again, as they should?

  


"Aoi? Aoi!"

He turned around at hearing cries of his name, musings disrupted, nearly unhinging the last of the wet and heavy sheets he had been hanging up on his little makeshift clothesline in surprise. The backdoor was ajar, and from within he could see shapes moving around as if in a panic. Hurrying over, he stepped inside to find Ruki and Reita with a blood-drenched man lying on the floor, soaking the futon with scarlet.

It was a sight he saw all the time, but Aoi still couldn't find it in himself to get used to all the gore. 

"Oh my god!" He exclaimed in horror, pausing for only a bit to gape before he was retying his hair as it was already loosening from its halftail. Pushing his sleeves further up his arms than it already was, he kneeled on the floor, two fingers finding the space behind the bloody man's ear, checking for a pulse. It was still there, thank the heavens. Looking up, with narrowed eyes he asked the inevitable question. "What happened?"

Ruki, who was familiar with the process of handling wounded people more than his fiancé who simply turned to him for instructions, was already filling a pot with water that he was going to heat until lukewarm while Aoi grabbed a pair of scissors to be able to cut away his surprise patient's stained and damage shirt. 

"It was a _monstre._ He saved me from it."

Aoi looked up at Ruki sharply, pressing his palms firmly upon a cloth that he placed over the man's wound after he finally located the source of all the blood: a long gash the width of two of his fingers that ran across his patient's abdomen.

"What? But it's daylight! I also thought they've cleared the town? Oh, and I'll need to stitch him up!"

Reita was manually sterilizing what they had at his words, which wasn't much: a needle over a candle's flame as he tossed Ruki the remaining surgical thread that was left in order for it to be soaked on boiled water as soon as it cooled down enough. 

"Must have been desperate and hungry." Reita replied distractedly as he laid down a clean strip of cloth, placing the needle atop it and then, as soon as he was done drying it up, the thread. "Everyone's scared despite the little announcement from the Marshall that all's well. He was forced to go get the Mayor."

Ruki snorted derisively as he carefully walked towards them, a basin of still steaming water in his hands. "Of course the townspeople are all afraid. We were told the city _has been_ cleared. They were obviously lying."

Aoi sighed. "Put pressure on the wound, we have to make the bleeding stop." He advised as he rinsed his hands and arms quickly, before grabbing a new cloth and dipping it on the still hot water, wringing the excess liquid out and cleaning away as much blood from his patient's torso as he could. "This is alarming. I hope the Mayor—" But the rest of his words got stuck in his throat, breath suspended in his lungs as a patch of inked skin was revealed to him, just under the bloody man's left collarbone.

**TGZ-977-09 "URUHA"**

"No way."

Ruki and Reita looked up at him as he breathed those two words out, and then at what he was staring at when asking what the matter was yielded no results. Ruki gasped, but Reita parroted Aoi in amazement, crawling close. "No way. It's one of them Soldiers."

For a minute, the three of them stared in amazement at the man on the floor, before a low groan broke the daze and Aoi was pulled back to reality, harshly reminding him of what he was supposed to be doing. 

"Oh! Oh, I'm sorry, let's get to work! Ruki, I need as much light as possible so please push all the drapes aside. Reita, please hold onto him as best you can, his body might react to the pain even though he's unconscious."

Ruki was doing as was told, letting the late afternoon light in as he commented distractedly. "Then use anaesthesia. The wound's bad enough to warrant it."

Aoi was frowning in concentration as he dabbed away what was left of the blood from his patient's lower stomach, needle in hand as he replied. 

"We've run out."

That said and as Ruki picked up a candle on its holder to provide even more needed light to him, sitting close but out of the way, Aoi began the tedious task of sewing a wound closed. 

..

  


"Kai, do you know Shiroyama Aoi?"

Those were his Father's first words as soon as he climbed up the horse-drawn carriage he had been asked to take to the other side of town because of an emergency. Halfway in their mode of transportation, Kai allowed a frown to grace his face as he glided into his seat. He hadn't been told this trip wasn't exclusive.

"So you're here, you're going to show up. You actually care about your people."

There was a huff and then the sound of an igniting match, before the smell of tobacco filled the little space they were trapped in, at the same time their carriage began to move. 

"I have always cared. I'm the Mayor."

Kai was looking out the window with his arms crossed, expression sour as he refused to even look at half the reason he existed in this world.

"Yeah, whatever. And yes, I know Aoi. You should too actually, and not only because he's been giving medical help to our people as best he can with what he can put together." 

There was a hint of surprise in his Father's tone. "I should?"

A roll of his eyes later, and Kai turned to him, disgusted by the mere sight of the town's corrupt Mayor, a man he had the misfortune of calling a parent. 

"You rejected the medical supply request he sent last week, as well as the week before that."

There was a meaningful pause, Father and son allowing their gazes to watch the passing scenery outside the window, air definitely tense. At length, it was the former who spoke. 

"Then it's approved and more in exchange for his silence. We have a problem and I need your help."

..

  


It was probably a little past seven pm, in Aoi's estimation. Outside, the wind was howling and it smelled of fire again. Sighing from his position by the sink, he glanced behind him at the man laying on the futon, fast asleep. 

_Soldier,_ he thought to himself as he turned around completely now, cradling a basin and watching the four candles he had in the room illuminate the man's features, throwing it in dancing shadows. He looked so normal, handsome even with his defined jaw, but Aoi knew he wasn't.

None of the Soldiers were.

Ever since the emergence of the _monstre_ , creatures whose origin was unknown until now, the world had gone into chaos. All those movies about the Apocalypse never predicted this: grotesque beings of the night who devoured slowly, piece by piece. They were a scary sight: willowy with human-like bodies and bird wings the color of night, their heads and talon-like nails that of a crow's, eyes abnormally large and bulbous, and all-seeing especially in the dark. 

And it was bad enough that they were carnivorous, preferring human meat most of all, but worse: they toyed with their prey and found satisfaction not only on juicy flesh but the taste of despair upon it just before death. One scratch, a nip of its beak, those resulted in frightful delusions and hallucinations. 

Soldiers were immune to those. 

And that was because they were genetically engineered and enhanced. The nitty-gritty details, Aoi wasn't really sure of, but all he knew was that Soldiers didn't dream nor feel, and that was why they were effective against the _monstre_ whose weapon was fear. If the Soldiers were not capable of delusions and couldn't feel afraid, then the showdown was a matter of tactic, Man vs Beast like that show before the world almost ended.

In the beginning, there had been only thirty Soldiers per country sent on missions to eliminate _monstre_ nests. But eggs had been lain and hatched eventually, and before everyone knew it, there were more of these creatures than there were Soldiers.

It was hell, complete and utter hell as the government of every nation worked together as fast as they could to produce more Soldiers. Still, it took five years before the _monstre_ were finally driven way, and although they were never going to be truly gone, their numbers had dwindled at least and were supposedly at a place of their own where no human was going to be harmed.

What now, of the Soldiers?

A lot of people didn't know, and honestly, they hardly cared now that they were more or less safe. It angered Aoi to no end, but then what could he do anyway?

 _I can at least,_ he told himself resolutely, _help the one that has been dumped right at my doorstep._

Aoi kneeled beside _TGZ-977-09 "URUHA",_ noticing the slight trembling in the other's frame. Frowning, he placed a palm over the Soldier's forehead and had to pull it back with a gasp. He was burning up! Picking up the cloth he'd prepared from its pool of water, supposedly to just clean his patient up, he began cooling him down too, softly singing him a calming little song. 

Unfeeling and dreamless, but still susceptible to sickness? So much for genetic engineering and enhancement then—these Soldiers were supposed to be invincible, weren't they?

"I wonder if you had a family?" He whispered, pushing the blanket Reita had covered the Soldier with earlier just low enough for him to be able to wipe around the bandage since his patient was naked. "And what you were like?"

There was a groan in response, making him pause and hold his breath as the man lying on the bed shifted slightly, but when he didn't wake, Aoi exhaled in relief and continued with his task in silence this time. 

It wasn't until tomorrow that he was going to get the shock of his life. 


End file.
